Top iOS 16 Updates That are Sure to Improve your Third-Party App Experience

iPhone App Development continues to grow across all industries, here at Dogtown Media an iPhone app developer in San Francisco we love to see the excitment around the new release of iOS 16!

Producing a top-tier app campaign requires a deep understanding of the latest tools, technologies, integrations, and APIs available in a specific platform. While about 90% of the population uses smartphones, nearly half of these smartphone users carry iPhones which shows just how popular Apple products are.

Apple is known for constantly innovating their product line, including periodic software updates to their platform that provide arguably the most seamless and satisfying smartphone experience to date. Their native apps are unparalleled – so as a prospective app developer you’ll want to get the highlights on the upcoming iOS 16 updates so your third-party app can be just as engaging.

Later this year, Apple will unveil one of the biggest UX/UI improvements yet on their iOS 16 platform. Along with this revamp comes some powerful new features for app developers to harness. Understanding the top enhancements and what’s available under the hood will allow app developers to capitalize on this huge opportunity.

Top 5 new APIs 

Live Text This feature will allow developers to extract text directly from photos from the camera roll or in other apps. For FinTek and mHelath app developers, this could be a game changer for processing, organizing, and securely storing sensitive finance and health data. 

Focus Filters With this tool in place, you can align your third-party app experience to the user’s unique “Focus” mode such as “do not disturb”, “driving”, “work”, or “personal” – overall making the app feel more integrated with the iOS ecosystem.

RoomPlan This feature will harness the LIDAR sensors on the iPhone 12/13 Pro and ProMax as well as iPad Pro to generate 3D room plans. It will even calculate dimensions and sense furniture pieces throughout the space. With this totally new tool, we are sure to see some new types of apps that can help smartphone owners plan their home upgrades, purchase new furniture and appliances, and even ease with moving logistics.

MapKit Allows developers to pull 3D map data, a popular feature from the iOS 15 release, which provides an immersive experience for travelers in some of the world’s major cities like Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London, and more. 

Automatic Shortcuts App developers can enable shortcuts automatically, without any user setup required.

Developer features 

Xcode Cloud: A completely cloud-based platform, built to scale for any team size, that allows accelerated end-to-end app development. The suite has a range of subscription plans as well as a free version.

Xcode 14: The improved version boasts faster project builds with up to 25% more efficient and a 30% smaller application file to download. The new platform provides a centralized SwiftUI which allows parallel development across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS. App developers can view coding changes in real time thanks to live preview, as well as make look and feel changes to the preview without changing code. 

Metal 3 Graphics Framework: This capability allows game developers to harness the new Apple processor chip powerful computing engine to produce more realistic and responsive graphics. Equipped with the Fast Reseource Loading  API, coders will experience less latency when accessing high-density textures and geometry.

Game Center Integration: Another powerful tool Apple is giving game developers is the ability to integrate Activity data into the dashboard, allowing game users to see what games their friends are playing in real time.

WeatherKit: gives developers the ability to pull Apple weather app data directly into their environment. Equipped with machine learning prediction alogrthims and high-density meteorological data, coders can harness these features through Swift and REST APIs. 

AKAdNetwork API updates: Apple is enhancing privacy within this API to help advertisers track ad metrics while maintaining customer privacy, leading to optimize ad spend and better conversions. The Hierarchical source IDs and conversion values allow developers to track small and large ad campaigns without the risk of cross-app tracking of individuals.

WidgetKit API: Gives developers the ability to create a widget for their app accessible on the lock screen. Widgets can convey weather information, progress to goals, and other snapshot information similar to widgets on your Apple Watch face.

Is Your App Ready for iOS 16?

With so many features packed into this next wave of iOS, third-party app developers are going to be bursting with ideas for new apps and ways to adapt and enhance existing apps to the new platform. If you’re looking to develop an app on iOS 16, consider working with Dogtown Media – they boast a team of experts, an extensive portfolio, and proven track record to achieve your goal during every step of the process.